ProjectsAtWork

ProjectsAtWork has joined forces with ProjectManagement.com. Here you can follow our bloggers and access our extensive archive of articles and deliverables. Moving forward, our contributors will continue to create content for ProjectManagement.com, including the Agileist and Driving Strategy newsletters.

From the Archives

As ProjectsAtWork officially moves to ProjectManagement.com, here are answers to some frequently asked questions, including how you can continue to access our content on ProjectManagement.com, and what happens to your profile, comments and subscriptions moving forward.

The Agile voting mechanism known as "Fist of Five" is a great way to drive your team towards consensus and commitment. It's a simple, powerful process that can strengthen alignment and increase transparency on your projects. Here’s a look at how — and why — it works.

The popular managerial acronym VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) can be useful in identifying and categorizing risks, but a complementary framework known as VUCA-Prime is more helpful in shaping appropriate responses to those risks by focusing on vision, understanding, clarity and agility.

ProjectsAtWork is joining forces with ProjectManagement.com, the world’s largest online community of project management practitioners. Combining resources, expertise and energies, we will be more focused than ever on delivering the content that helps you get things done in the real world.

Managing risk is not exclusively about minimizing it. Risk is also about maximizing rewards. Here, a lead project manager shares some thoughts on “playing it safe” to stay on track and avoid issues versus “taking a plunge” to pursue an unexpected opportunity.

Projects may be unique endeavors, but they can’t be managed in isolation. They must be integrated and assessed within the context of strategic enterprise goals — a portfolio-level perspective enabling synchronized adjustments on the way to delivery. And this requires project leaders to adjust as well.

As project and program managers you have plenty of obstacles in your way — don’t become another one. Have you assessed your emotional intelligence skillset to leverage your strengths and close the gaps? Here are six competencies that can propel your leadership and initiatives forward.

Asked to align its sprint calendar with others in the organizations, an agile team’s initial reaction was to resist. But upon further discussion, the team decided there were three situations where this action could, in fact, improve dependency management and transparency with customers and executives.

You already know there is no 'one type fits all' when it comes to a project management office. But does your PMO have a type at all? Does it attempt to do too little or too much? Or is it hemmed in by your organization’s oversight or lack of project portfolio management maturity?

Blogs

This blog is for all of us who manage projects which must provide value now, and in the long run.
If your projects have economic, environmental or social impacts - and we say that's all of them - this blog is for you.

Podcasts and blog posts to help you manage the challenge of transitioning from traditional project management to Agile. Dave Prior celebrates success, embraces the learning that comes from failure, and digs deep on topics you need to be up to speed on.

Interviews and insights with project, program and portfolio management experts from around the world. Hear how top practitioners deliver their initiatives to meet strategic and executive objectives. Best of all, earn free PDUs for each interview!

Individuals or teams may react negatively to change for a variety of reasons, from lack of information, to fear or misunderstanding about the implications, among others. Use this worksheet to invite communication and develop an appropriate response that addresses concerns while conveying the need and vision for the change.

By bridging strategy with project and portfolio management, integrated roadmaps help organizations make decisions that align with long-term goals and deliver more significant innovation, from NPD to IT efforts. This five-step guide to building a roadmap covers needs and drivers, products and capabilities, delivery gaps, and resource opportunities.

Do your change initiatives create high levels of uncertainty, frustration and wasted effort? Is the human side of change valued through coaching, communication and recognition? This review template can help executives, project/program managers and implementation teams evaluate the effectiveness of change leadership in their organization.

Project costs receive serious scrutiny from executives and stakeholders who use ROI and other financial metrics to judge organizational performance. Here is a checklist of questions to help project leaders and their teams determine the best available options for responding to project cost risks and issues that may arise.